CHELSEA, Alabama -- The Shelby County Board of Education is responding to concerns about sewage
backups and other problems at Chelsea Middle School through a plan to fix the
issue over spring break as well as pursue a $1.5 million renovation project at
the facility later this year.

Parents are planning to gather at the Shelby County Board
of Education meeting tonight in Columbiana to voice concerns about the
conditions at Chelsea Middle School, where sewage has backed up into the building
eight times since the fall and has generated complaints to health agencies.

"I am appalled and confused as to why it has been allowed
to get to the point it has gotten to," said Marlo Saunders, who has a son in
eighth grade at the school.
Saunders and other parents are complaining the school district has allowed the
building to generate concerns with the sewage backup, flooding issues and
potential mold worries.

"We have questions about is there a mold problem there?"
Saunders said in an interview. "We'd like for an independent source to come in
there and say there's not a mold problem."

The sewage problems have been an ongoing concern at the
school that parents and others feel have not been properly addressed by the
district.

"They've not been doing a permanent fix," Saunders said. "The
alternative is walking in sewage where you're changing in the locker rooms,
which is what has happened. They could've done this over Christmas break."

Instead, it appears the school district has waited "until
we throw a fit and call the health department," she said.

Deputy Superintendent Tom Ferguson in an interview today said
the problems causing the sewer line will be repaired over spring break, which
starts Monday. He said the work will involve digging up the entire line.

He admits the previous efforts to address the problem have
been unsuccessful. "It's taken that long because we've tried to find other
remedies. We're at a point now we need to go ahead, find the most opportune
time to make a permanent fix to the problem, and that's what's going to happen
over spring break," he said.

The school board's action to approve the emergency
completion at tonight's meeting is happening "because we need to start now," he
said.

The school district also plans to seek bids for a roughly
$1.5 million renovation project for Chelsea Middle School sometime in August to
address other issues at the school, Ferguson said. The project will involve a
work to improve connectivity between the old Chelsea Intermediate School and
Chelsea Middle School.

"It's projected at this point to be a $1.5 million
project for improving movement between what was the intermediate school side to
the middle school. Now that Forest Oaks Elementary has opened, there are some
concerns about being able to get from one side to the other," Ferguson said.

"We want to make
the whole campus a middle school. There needs to be clean connectivity between
the two sides," he said.

Additionally, the district will undertake a complete
renovation of the locker room beneath the gymnasium at the middle school. "That's
a very much needed project that will be in included," Ferguson said.

"Since we're doing a whole new locker room renovation, we
want to update the gymnasium. We're going to put in new bleachers, refinish the
floor and put in new graphics for the Hornets over there," he said.

The project will also include a wheelchair lift for
the stage inside the school to provide accessibility under the Americans with
Disabilities Act, Ferguson said. Additionally, there will be improvements to a widen
a hallway that will be the primary access for sixth-graders at the school

The sewer line repairs will be the priority work starting
next week at the school. "The sewer line runs under hallway flooring and concrete
portions. That kind of makes it difficult to address all of the issues with the
sewer lines," Ferguson said. "Over spring break that's going to be done, and
the sewer line replacement will be taken care of."